Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu celebrating his overwhelming victory in the party's primary elections, Tuesday in Tel Aviv. (Alon Ron)


Netanyahu wins Likud primary with 73% of vote (click here)
By Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondent and The Associated Press
Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu won an overwhelming victory in the Likud primary elections Tuesday, receiving 73.2 percent of the final vote. The other two candidates in the leadership race - Moshe Feiglin and Danny Danon - received 23.4 percent and 3.4 percent respectively, Israel Radio reported.
Only some 40 percent of Likud voters cast their ballots in the party's primaries.
Netanyahu is expected to consider steps to limit the strength of Feiglin, a religious settler with a platform that calls for barring Arabs from the Knesset, encouraging non-Jews to emigrate and pulling Israel out of the United Nations....


IDF general: Syrian army signaling that Damascus doesn't want war (click here)
By Amos Harel, Barak Ravid, and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents
IDF GOC Northern Command Gadi Eizenkot said Tuesday that the Syrian military is trying to send Israel the message that it is not interested in confrontation. "The Syrian army is trying to calm the sector down," said Eizenkot, during a tour of the North by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. "Syria is taking action in the field that is designed to signal to Israel that it is not interested in escalation." Meanwhile, Israel has learned that Damascus has recently received a new missile system, as part of a process of strengthening its army that has been ongoing in recent months....



India's leading imam to visit Israel (click here)
By HAVIV RETTIG

Hazrat Maulana Jameel Ahmed Ilyasi, president of the All-India Association of Imams and Mosques, will arrive in
Israel on Saturday as part of a "peace delegation" of Indian Muslim leaders.
"Our visit to Israel will be historical in terms of developing a dialogue between Judaism and Islam in the Indian subcontinent, where more than 40 percent of the world Muslim population lives," Ilyasi said in a statement ahead of the visit....



Our World: Bankrupting Iran is not enough (click here)

According to a spate of recent media reports, Iran's economy is on the skids. It works out that aside from being a messianic, genocidal killer, Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad is also an economic dunce.
Ahmadinejad entered office two years ago after running a populist campaign pledging to share Iran's oil and gas revenues with the Iranian people. As his campaign slogan put it, Ahmadinejad would "put petroleum income on people's tables." But two years into his tenure, the economy is failing. While the government places inflation rates at 12-13 percent, Radio Farda reported that Iran's Parliament Research Center indicates that the rate is actually closer to 20 percent.
Interviewed on Radio Farda, Iranian economist Fereidun Khavand explained that most of Iran's economic woes are the direct result of Ahmadinejad's economic foolishness. The chaotic economic situation, Khavand noted came after Ahmadinejad "shifted the circle of economic decision-making from the Ministry of Finance and Economics, the Planning and Management Committee, and the Iranian Central Bank to the presidential administration solely."
Ahmadinejad's economic mismanagement, which includes discouraging international investment by destabilizing the region politically through his bellicose rhetoric and frenetic advance of Iran's nuclear weapons program and support for global jihad, has singled him out for opprobrium by Iran's intellectual elites. In June, 57 Iranian economists signed an open letter condemning Ahmadinejad's policies and accusing him of "ignoring the basic principles of economics." The economists warned that "government mismanagement is inflicting a huge cost on the economy and underscores that high oil revenues over the last two years can only delay the imminent economic crisis."...



Iran FM spokesman: Larijani-ElBaradei deputies meet on 20 August (click here)
TEHRAN, Aug. 13 (ISNA)-Iran's foreign ministry spokesman stated that the fourth round of talks between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the U.S would be held after summarizing and reviewing the previous talks.
"The third round of talks between Iran and the U.S. on Iraq are being summarized and the fourth round of talks will be held at the same level after our studies on the previous meetings have been finalized," said Mohammad Ali Husseini in an interview with Iranian stated TV channel.
"The main aims behind these meetings are reminding the U.S. of its duties as the occupier in Iraq, finding the roots of problems and ways to exit the current crises."
Husseini while referring to enforcing Nouri Maliki's government, respecting the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq as some of the issues considered by the Iran said, "We proposed these issues in the first round of talks, in the second round we expressed these issues with more emphasize and in the third round in addition to reminding the U.S. of its duties we suggested factors which are considered important by the Islamic Republic of Iran in establishing security and stability in that country."
Asked if Iran was to receive any concession for its help to U.S. over the Iraq issue, Husseini said, "No".
"We believe any help offered by Iran to restore security and stability to Iraq would benefit the Iraqi people and its government, as well as its neighbors and the region."
He also gave news that the third round of talks between Iran's supreme national security council deputy Javad Vaeedi, and IAEA deputy director general for safeguards, Olli Heinonen over Iran's peaceful nuclear program was to be held on the 20th of August.
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